Hi all,Seems like a lot of people on the forum are quite well read when it comes to weight loss and I was hoping I could pick your brains to aid me in my weight loss plans!

Over the past 2 weeks I have been increasing my exercise routine to approx 5-6 times per week, alternating cardio and weight classes. I burn around 300-700 calories each time depending if its treadmill day or Body Pump night. For almost 2 weeks now, I've also been keeping an eye on my food intake and consume around 1000-1200 calories a day. On a naughty day I probably would consume ~1400-1500 cals?

Anyway, reading some posts on the forum just a few minutes ago... should I actually be eating more food since I'm exercising more? So that my body doesnt go into 'starvation' mode. Of all the food groups, I believe protein is what I should focus on... but what sort of protein should I be eating? It seems like proteins contain a lot of calories so I don't really know how to gauge this. I'm thinking I need to invest in a kitchen scale. And if you cook meals yourself, how do you take into account all the sauces/seasonings that are on the food? Oh, I'm a 25 yr old female weighing ~77-77.5kg (fluctuating in that range these few days ) if that helps..

On a different note... I've been slowly increasing the duration of my runs but I'm finding that when I start runs, my knees are a little sore.. they get a bit better once I'm running past 1.5mins or so and they're fine otherwise (when I'm walking, standing, sitting etc). Is the soreness similar to that of muscle aches after exercise and its simply the knee muscles (?) breaking and repairing?

Thanks sooo much for reading my lengthy post.. I really appreciate all the help/suggestions/comments

Your diet seems fine, but I think the calories may be not enough, I find it that eating protein with each meal that contains carbs works very well, so your food digest a lot faster. I am following a healthy diet program with all the right combination of foods and it is working very well for me so far.

Last edited by CronicBadger on Mon May 30, 2011 9:21 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Reason:Deleted spammy sig.

I am one for always going on about making sure you eat the right amount I am like a broken record lol. Get onto google and research a bit about your BRM (basal metabolic rate) and find out what your number is and how it all works.

Your stats are v similar to mine a couple months ago (22yo, 78kg start) - meals sound great except I would aim for more cals at breakfast and more cals overall (probs be about right if you fit a couple of your snacks into your day - I would even consider 10-15 almonds as they would be easy to eat at work, calorie dense so you will be closer to a good minimum intake, delicious!!, also lots of studies show people who eat a handful of nuts each day have more long term weight loss (ie keep losing longer when on an identical calorie diet to people not eating the nuts) and tend to stick to their diet longer in general ... you probably want to be at a 1200 minimum, and maybe a bit more depending on your height and just how you go personally with the dif cals (calculators tend to tell me between 1250 and 1600 for weight loss - I am trying a few places inbetween but coming to decide of late that the 1250 works the best personally)

Good foods to work in there are yogurt (breakfast perhaps? I love overnight yogurt with a bit of oats or crushed cereal and nuts etc - super fast to grab out of the fridge cuz you put it together when ur going to bed), more veggies if you can (sticks with your tuna and thins at lunch??) and definitely hit up the fruit between meals for snacks! You can make beautiful treats incorporating fruit and a nice yogurt for morning tea or after dinner etc - tsp of honey or sprinkling of pepitas/sunflower kernels can really add something and are all good for you. These are just suggestions tho as they are things I really enjoy and seem to be recommended a lot for balance and healthy weight loss - your eating looks v healthy otherwise - best of luck and i look forward to hearing how you go!